Left of the Dial: Memphis is Raised by WXYR’s Sound

In this series, we highlight independent radio stations across America which are keeping alive the dream of human DJs, unpredictable playlists, and free airwaves.

“Raised By Sound” is WYXR’s tagline, but it could also be the mantra for Memphis, Tennessee as a whole. This is a city best known for being home to Beale Street, Sun Studios, Stax Records, and countless iconic blues, jazz, gospel, rock, and hip-hop artists. So it’s only appropriate that Memphis have a freeform independent radio station that can play music from all of these diverse genres and eras… but WYXR’s existence is actually a fairly new phenomenon.  

More from Spin:

• Yusuf/Cat Stevens Is On The ‘Road’ To His First Memoir
• King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard ‘Fly’ High On New Single
• Queens Of The Stone Age Come ‘Alive’ In Paris Catacombs

“We are four years in. Our fifth birthday will be October 5th,” says executive director and co-founder Robby Grant. For two decades prior, the frequency had been a University of Memphis jazz station, but after declining student involvement, the school looked to the wider community for partnership. In came local nonprofit news organization the Daily Memphian and the historic building Crosstown Concourse with ideas on how to create a station covering what program manager and co-founder Jared “Jay B.” Boyd describes as, “A wide spectrum of all kinds of sounds, and not just Memphis stuff, but real Memphis music and the people who care about Memphis pulling in all their influences to the table.” 

To do this and really connect with the community, Grant explains, “We moved (the station) out of the basement of the (university’s) theater building and into this million and a half square foot building that we’re in now.” Yes, WYXR is headquartered in the massive Central Atrium of the city’s famed Crosstown Concourse, allowing anyone passing by to see inside the studio while its DJs broadcast live. This keeps the DJs in VERY direct communication with the locals. For example, listening to the station as I write this, DJs Laurie and Andy joked on air about accidentally scaring a kid who was walking by the station’s window when they played a loud sound bite from X’s Exene Cervenka. These kinds of fun interactions are welcome and happen all the time according to Jay B. 

“Because we’re here, in probably one of the most trafficked lobbies in the entire city,” he says. “And beyond that, there’s a nightclub that’s focused on music right around the hall, where there’s artists coming through all the time. There’s a studio also down the hall, and a record listening lounge called the Memphis Listening Lab. We’re in the middle of an ecosystem of live performance and records being cut, so there’s always somebody with a song or something going on.”

Broadcasting like this would be proof enough of WYXR’s commitment to showcasing Memphis’s love of music, but it’s only a drop in their bucket. WYXR also organizes the annual Raised By Sound Festival, showcasing major and rising artists influenced by Memphis’s musical heritage (or in the case of the first year’s headliner, one of the city’s greatest bands ever, Big Star). They also host the innovative Meeting in the Middle conference—where musicians, industry pros, and students interested in music careers meet for conversations about the art and business of music—and launched the Dowd Awards (recognizing local Black musicians) and several educational outreach programs. In these past not-quite-five years, WYXR has become what Grant hoped for when they first started working on it at the start of the COVID pandemic: “A station that represents the Memphis community, in a way it hadn’t been represented with radio. Just a community, a meeting place for music lovers.”

What is the most Memphis thing about WYXR?

Jay B: We might be so close to it that we don’t realize it . But I think it’s really the only place where you could have both Pastor Shipp and DJ Spanish Fly on the same station. Like here, you’ll find me, a former intern, Spanish Fly, and Pastor Shipp—who had a gospel label in the ’70s—all playing Uno, just hanging out. And, you know, these people probably wouldn’t have spoken to each other if they were in a grocery store, but they all have these very unique positions in Memphis’s musical heritage and its future.

Robby Grant: I think it’s how deep we go with the records. There are a lot of studios here in Memphis, and there were a ton back in the day. So there’s all these hard-to-find records and those people are still around, which is very unique to Memphis. Like Jay B. said, we’re amplifying that sound and those artists.

Any celebrity listeners or supporters?

Liv Cohen (community engagement and events lead): I graduated in 2023, but when I got sent home for COVID, WYXR was what kept me connected to Memphis while I was stuck at home on Zoom classes every day. And what drew me to the station was that one of my favorite artists, Andrew VanWyngarden from MGMT, had a show on the station, and still has one now!

Current artist that you want more folks to hear?

JC: I would say the biggest energy around artists that have a tight relationship with the station right now are probably Talibah Safiya, Cyrena Wages, and Marcella Simien.

RG: I would put in Optic Sink. Two of our DJs are in that band and they’re working on their third or fourth record. Their shows are really great and they’re artists.

LC: For me, Melinda is an artist releasing really great music this year outta Memphis on a DIY label.

Any goals for the future of the station?

RG: We just want to keep it going. Like, one of our immediate needs is we need a new antenna. So we’re working on that, which can be crazy, but I mean… we don’t want to be huge. We want to take what we’re doing, take our events, and make ’em even bigger and better. So I could see Raised By Sound Fest growing. It’d be nice to have another footprint here where we could do more education, and really just bolster our connection with new and older musicians here in Memphis. The goal for us is build, build, and get the station going, so it’s around long after the three of us are gone and it’s become a Memphis mainstay. Which we are hearing! People think we’ve been around a lot longer. Like, “Oh, y’all are only four years old?” It is a huge compliment for us and to the team here. We’ve done a lot of great work pretty quick.

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.